An Ohauiti resident has designed a fix for Turret Road's traffic woes in the form of a causeway that can be made off-site.

John Bickers owned property and businesses at the Turret Road end of 15th Avenue for 25 years and has seen the congestion steadily worsen.

Turret Road and 15th Avenue provide the main link between the city and Welcome Bay, Maungatapu, Hairini and Ohauiti.

John is tired of the constant bottle-neck, so he got together with friend Gerry Hodgson, a retired architect, to design Pōhutukawa Avenue.

The pair had several meetings at the site to work out how best to develop the road and bridge.

The suspended two-lane causeway would include a cycleway and a second bridge on the Maungatapu side of the current road.

'It could be virtually built off-site,” says John, 'so you're not shutting it down for years while it is being done.”

It would require pylons in the harbour then link to the bottom of 15th Avenue, he says.

The separate nature of the causeway would enable the iconic pōhutukawa that line the road to remain in place, with just one needing to be removed, says John.

'The removal could be counteracted by planting more of the native trees on the northern side of the road before the existing bridge,” he says.

The retiree, who has lived in Tauranga all of his life, has presented his plans to Tauranga City Council commissioner Anne Tolley.

'I had a great conversation with John and appreciated his enthusiasm for finding a way to remove the bottleneck that the Turret Road Bridge currently creates for people travelling into and out of the city centre,” says Anne.

'I've passed his ideas on to council's transport team to consider from a practical and technical perspective and asked them to contact him directly with any follow-up queries.”

Turret Road has an average of 28,000 vehicle movements per day according to council data, and is one of Tauranga's top five most congested roads.

In 2019, council started construction on stage one of the 15th Avenue improvement works, where extra lanes were added. In 2020 the Turret Road slip lane was turned into a cul de sac.

This was to give people driving on the main road a clear run onto the causeway, according to council.

'They haven't really achieved anything other than creating more carparks,” says John. 'It hasn't done anything for the traffic flow.”

Long term plans for the road corridor are still in the development stages.

Council's director of transport, Brendan Bisley, says an investigation, known as a business case, will be undertaken to confirm the improvements needed to the 15th Avenue, Turret Road and Welcome Bay Road corridor.

'This will include consideration of the options to improve the Turret Road Bridge, as a key part of the wider corridor,” he says.

'The costs associated with improving the corridor will be considered as part of developing the business case.”

The business case is scheduled to start in late March, 2022.